The List
by byebyeabandonedfics
Summary: Dan and Phil have been best friends for as long as they can remember- troublemakers too. So when Phil's parents finally snap and decide to move away from Dan and to a different town, the two boys realise that they only have one summer left with each other before it's goodbye forever. They come up with a list of all the things they'd like to do before they're pulled apart, and they


"PHILIP MICHAEL LESTER!" My mum yells as soon as I enter our house. I sigh, dropping my bag on the floor by the door and walking towards where I think her voice came from. I was hoping that the beginning of summer would go a little bit better than this but I guess beggars can't be choosers.

"What mum?" I reply when I locate her, she's standing in the kitchen by the dining table with her hand on her hip angrily tapping her foot on the ground.

"Your school report is absolutely atrocious! I mean- you did perfectly in most of your lessons and got brilliant scores, but your behaviour is horrible! Look at how many detentions you've gotten!"

I only just manage to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her, she knows that I'm a troublemaker, alongside my best friend Dan, she brings this up every time I get my report and it's quite annoying.

"She's right Philip." My dad says, entering the kitchen, "your behaviour is out of order, and it's all down to that Daniel kid."

"What?!" I say in disbelief, "you can't seriously be blaming Dan! He doesn't force me into these things you know! I do it all willingly! I'm not a bloody sheep!"

My dad turns and looks at me with a stern look in his eyes, I glance at my mum, whose eyes have softened a little.

"Phil, we've decided to move away." My mum says, dropping the bombshell on me, "I'm really sorry, but Dan is obviously a bad influence on you and it would be better for you to get away from him."

"WHAT?!" I practically shriek, "Dan is my only friend! You can't separate us, that's not fair!"

"It's for your own good, Philip. We're leaving in four weeks."

"But that means I don't even get to spend the whole summer with Dan before we leave!"

"Good, the less time you spend with that boy the better!"

"We'll be expecting you to pack soon Philip."

"For God's sake my name is Phil, dad. Stop calling me Philip." I turn and leave the room, exiting the house via the front door and slamming it shut behind me. I clench my fists by my sides slightly as I journey quickly towards Dan's house, I reach there in record time, and reach my hand up to knock when I hear shouting coming from inside, I almost lean forward and put my ear to the door to be able to hear better, but as I go to do so the door is flung open and I find that a very angry Dan is standing in front of me.

"I'm guessing now you know too?" He nods, and pulls the door shut behind him when I step back and allow him to move out of the doorway. We start walking away from both of our houses, having no idea where we're going or where we want to end up but continuing to walk together anyway.

We move in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Dan has calms himself down enough to start asking questions.

"How long have you known?" He asks.

"I just got told today, same as you, that's why I was at your house."

"I probably would've come to yours if I had found out first so it's okay." He sighs, shoving his hands in his jean pockets, "what're we gonna do?

"Well we still have summer…" I say optimistically.

"We've gotta make it special, this could be our last summer together."

I nod in reply, agreeing with him, "so what do you suggest, D-Slice?"

He smirks at me, "firstly, don't ever call me that again, secondly, I think we should come up with a list."

I frown in confusion, "a list? What, like 100 things to do before you die?"

"A bucket list- something like that, yeah, except replace the world 'die' with 'move away to god knows where and unwillingly leave your best friend behind' and the number '100' with '15', and we're set!"

I laugh, "15? Really?"

"What?" He says, "I'm too lazy to come up with 100."

I roll my eyes, typical Dan, "okay, well we should probably go back to your house and start writing it then." I tell him, he nods in reply and we start walking back to Dan's.

When we reach Dan's house he enters without any hesitation and I follow behind, closing the door behind me. Dan's parents don't mind having me round here, they think I'm a good influence on Dan, I'm not really, but at least it makes them like me.

We go up to Dan's room and he quickly pulls out an old notepad that he was given for school but never used and a clickable pen before we both settle down on the floor and start brainstorming.

"Should we write them in order of what we want to do most to least or least to most? Or maybe we should just randomise them?" I suggest.

"We don't have to do it in order, I guess." Dan replies, finishing noting down all of the numbers, "just call out a number and tell me what you want written next to it."

"Okay…" I bite my lip, thinking for a minute, "number 1: dye my hair."

Dan looks up at me and smiles, "haven't you already done that?"

"Yeah but you haven't, and I meant a colour like blue or purple."

Dan sighs, "fine then." He writes it down. "Number 2: go skinny dipping."

"Wait what?" I say quickly.

"Phil, come on, live a little."

"Okay whatever." I give in.

Eventually we finish, with the ideas in no specific order, some much, much worse than others that are definitely going to get is in trouble.

Dan smiles at me as we go over the list together.

"This is literally gonna be the best summer ever."

I smile back, "it definitely will be." I let my hand slip into his, his fingers curling around mine as we both turn our attention back to the list to look through it one last time. Our hands fit perfectly together but neither of us even acknowledge the fact that our fingers are intertwined, simply content with the fact that we're together and that we will be until the end of summer.

I leave Dan's just before his mum starts cooking dinner as I don't want to intrude on anything, Dan promises to call me so we can discuss the list later on over the phone.

I arrive home later than I originally intended because I deliberately started walking slower the closer I got to my house. I enter silently, noticing both of my parents sitting at the table, my brother is nowhere to be seen, but he's probably doing his homework somewhere. Martyn was always the perfect child and my parents had always wished that I would turn out like him, but unfortunately for them it never happened.

I had always been a disruptive child, refusing to listen to the teacher in my first few years of primary school, my outbursts during class often made it difficult for me to make friends, so I was all by myself until a new boy by the name of Dan Howell turned up at the school one day and everything changed for the better.

I was called Philip until the day Dan and I had our first conversation and he decided to call me Phil instead, I refused to go by Philip after that and only answered to Phil.

As Dan and I grew with stuck together, like two peas in a pod, we were joined at the hip and never left each other's sides, and as we got older our behaviour gradually got worse and my parents of course blamed Dan.

Which leaves us with the situation I'm currently in.

"Philip, where have you been?" My dad asks when he notices me. I grit my teeth and shut my eyes for a few seconds, taking a deep breath before answering.

"I was at Dan's." I reply.

I read my parents expressions and I can instantly tell that they're not happy with my reply, so I stalk off to my bedroom alone after telling them to call me down for dinner. I smile to myself as I remember the list, wondering whether or not we're going to be able to accomplish everything on it by the time our short summer is over.

My parents call me down for dinner, I join them and we eat in silence, the air thick with tension. I finish my meal as quickly as I can and run back upstairs to my room after I've put everything where it should be. I pull my phone out of my pocket and call Dan, his phone rings three times before he answers.

"Hey." He greets.

"Hi." I reply.

"So…" There's a pause, and I imagine him chewing his lip like he always does when he's thinking of the right way to say something. "I may have changed a few things on the list."

"Like?"

"Well, most of them are illegal now."

"Dan! We're supposed to have fun! Not get sent to jail!"

"Where's the harm in a little bit of risk taking, we were already breaking a few laws anyway."

I sigh in defeat, rolling my eyes, "whatever."

"So we start…?"

"Next week."

"Ooh nice."

I laugh, and I hear Dan chuckling on the other end of the line, "okay, I'm gonna go then, see you."

"Bye, Phil."

"Bye." I move the phone away from my ear and hang up, tossing the electronic device onto the bedside table next to me.

I stare up at the ceiling, wondering what kinds of things Dan and I will get up to and whether we'll regret what we're going to do.


End file.
